Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
A typical cellular wireless network includes a number of base stations that radiate to define wireless coverage areas, such as cells and cell sectors, in which wireless communication devices (WCDs) such as cell phones, tablet computers, tracking devices, embedded wireless modules, and other wirelessly equipped communication devices, can operate. In turn, each base station may be coupled with network infrastructure that provides connectivity with one or more transport networks, such as the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and/or the Internet for instance. With this arrangement, a WCD within coverage of the network may engage in air interface communication with a base station and may thereby communicate via the base station with various remote network entities or with other WCDs served by the base station.
In general, a cellular wireless network may operate in accordance with a particular air interface protocol or radio access technology, with communications from the base stations to WCDs defining a downlink or forward link and communications from the WCDs to the base stations defining an uplink or reverse link. Examples of existing air interface protocols include, without limitation, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) (e.g., 1xRTT and 1xEV-DO), Long Term Evolution (LTE), WiMAX, iDEN, TDMA, AMPS, Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), GPRS, UMTS, EDGE, MMDS, WI-FI, and BLUETOOTH. Each protocol may define its own procedures for registration of WCDs, initiation of communications, handoff between coverage areas, and functions related to air interface communication.
In accordance with the air interface protocol, each coverage area may operate on one or more carrier frequencies and may define a number of air interface channels for carrying information between the base station and WCDs. These channels may be defined in various ways, such as through frequency division multiplexing, time division multiplexing, and/or code-division multiplexing for instance.
Furthermore, when a cellular wireless network serves a WCD over an air interface, the network may allocate various network resources to facilitate communication to and from the WCD. By way of example, the network may allocate a particular air interface connection, such as a dedicated air interface traffic channel or a logical radio-connection identifier, for use to support air interface communications between the WCD and a serving base station. Further, the network may allocate a backhaul bearer connection, such as a dedicated backhaul channel or logical backhaul bearer identifier, for use to support backhaul communications for the WCD. Such a backhaul bearer connection may extend between the serving base station and a switch or gateway, for instance, or between various other network components.